Alibaba Group Spends $161 Million In Fight Against Fake Products

Alibaba Group Spends $161 Million In Fight Against Fake Products

The Alibaba Group has spent around $161 million in the removal of counterfeit items from its e-commerce listing. The e-commerce giant based in China made the announcement recently with more than 90 million listed items removed from its sites.

The cleansing was implemented by the company from January 2013 until November 2014. The announcement may dispel fears among investors who have criticized the volume of counterfeit items listed on Taobao, the most popular e-commerce website of the company. The site was considered a market for fake products by the US Office of Trade Representatives.

Near the start of the year, regulators and the Alibaba Group had to deal with the issue associated with counterfeit products before the company obtained a $25 billion IPO. The company revealed during that time that it was working on the removal of these items from its listings.

However, it was difficult to keep tabs on counterfeiters. Taobao is basically a combination of Amazon and eBay as it allows merchants to sell products on the website. A number of merchants based in China use the website in selling items, claiming they are authentic products. It is not easy to verify all items sold by all merchants through the website.

Despite this, the company has taken the lead in the fight against the sale of counterfeit items. Jonathan Lu, chief executive of the company, revealed that the company feels responsible for the fight against fake products.

For the moment, the Alibaba Group has not released any other statement in connection to its fight against the sale of counterfeit items through its websites.

Posted by James Fried on Monday December 29 2014, 5:51 AM EDT. Ref: CNET. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0